Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 2/16/2009

Question
QUESTION: I am using CS3 on a Mac laptop. Yesterday everything was working normally. Earlier today it worked fine. Tonight, though, I went to add text and only 5 fonts showed up {Geneva, Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, Lucida Grande and Monaco}. I have rebooted twice. Do you know what could cause this (this is, by the way, the second time it has happened).

ANSWER: Hi Emily,

It sounds like your fonts are in the wrong place on your system. The fonts that are showing up are some of the default system fonts. Are you using a font management application, such as suitcase, font explorer, etc? (Mac Font Book doesn't count). If not, I would recommend getting one since it will solve your current issue of missing fonts and also keep them in one location.

For now, double check your font folder in the system folder and make sure your fonts are in there. However, the more fonts you have in that folder the more memory is eaten up til your computer can freeze from too many.

Thanks

Kevin



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Kevin,
 Thanks for getting back to me. I've tried both suggestions - downloaded Font Explorer - and shortened my list of fonts. I've rebooted every time I've changed something and Photoshop still gives me the 5 fonts previously mentioned. Do you have any other suggestions? Thank you, again!

Answer
Hi Emily,

One question I forgot to ask is if this is only happening in PS. If this is, and you can see other fonts in Illustrator or InDesign, then you may need to reinstall PS.

If you can't see them in anything else, then try this.

First this is a good paper on Font Practices from Extensis. http://www.extensis.com/en/downloads/document_download.jsp?docId=5600039

The only other option I can think of is to turn all your fonts off including the ones you are seeing, except core system fonts (a list can be found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1538).

Then restart your computer launch PS and make sure you can see all those fonts. If not, this may require a complete tear down and reinstall of the OS. If you can, then start activating one by one and checking in PS until it breaks. It could just be one corrupt font causing an issue.

Thanks

Kevin